I shot a quick video just to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving!

{If you’re reading this in an e-mail or via a feed reader, you may have to click over to my blog to be able to watch the video.}

If you’d like a passage to meditate on this week, here’s one of my favorites, a prayer of David’s, given in 1 Chronicles 29:11-14.

“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.

Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”

I write from a place of wanting to encourage others and sharing what I’ve found works for me and truths I see illuminated in the Bible and wise words from those who have walked before me.

But our home is very ordinary. Blessed by God because we have each other, and hopefully peopled by those who are striving to serve Him, but so far from perfect and un-messy.

In other words, if you think we all slip quietly into our seats around the dining room table promptly at 6pm every night and calmly chat through a leisurely meal, all sweet and laughing and connecting at a deep level, you’re a little off the mark. There are a few nights like that…except it’s more like 6:30ish…and maybe only two or three have the “sweet” part down…and I’m likely one who doesn’t.

We cherish the nights when we laugh over stories from the girls’ school days and discuss a Bible truth that applies to us all and no one is in a rush to leave the table. But we’re also realistic enough to know that not every meal will follow that pattern.

Nor does everyone wake up smiling every morning, eager to embrace the day. Our children aren’t always speaking those kind words of encouragement to each other or graciously surrendering the bathroom so their sister can have a turn to get ready.

Attitude??? Shows up at some point from someone (usually a female 😉 almost daily.

So why am I sharing this? Because I want you to know that we’re all a work in progress. There’s always a behind-the-scenes, and while we seek to honor God as a family, I have the same (more or less) number of rough days that you do.

My dad is one of my greatest heroes, and one of the main reasons is because he’s never been a hypocrite. That’s saying a lot, considering all the sermons he’s preached from the pulpit in over 40 years of ministry. But he’s always been at home exactly what he was in public.

I would love to have that same testimony, before my children and before others.

This doesn’t mean I need to share every detail of our failings on social media, and I certainly don’t seek to have more of those messy moments just so I can be relatable! But I always want to be real, because God knows our hearts, and part of humility is recognizing that I have plenty more growing to do.

I write posts with names like Living Grateful and Have a More Peaceful Summer with Your Kids not because I’ve mastered these ideals, but because I know that these years are for training our children and myself as we go through this maturing process. I set goals for our family not so that we can be “perfect” to outsiders, but so that we can make our relationships more pleasing to Christ.

So let’s be encouraged today to love other moms and other families right where they are, to encourage each other, and to come alongside to help as we can. Nobody is perfect, which means God’s still working on each of us. He gently comes alongside, teaching us lessons as we allow, so that we can grow more into His image as moms, dads, teenagers, and kids. Let’s extend mercy and grace to others, all the while accepting it for ourselves as we go through each day.

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” ~Psalm 103:17, 18

While the weather here in coastal South Carolina will continue to be warm (well, hot, actually) for the next couple of months, I am really starting to look forward to autumn. I enjoy fall foods – think anything pumpkin and big bowls of soup – and I like fall clothes, too!

I want to thank you in advance for indulging my once-a-season foray into fashion. I wear lots of skirts, so I enjoy gathering ideas for different looks each season. I may not even buy much in the way of new clothes, but it gives me fresh perspective so that I can rework clothes I already own.

One of the main things I want to find is cute, casual clothes that I can throw on quickly if I’m just driving the girls to school on cool mornings – but won’t mind being seen in if I have to stop by the grocery store. This outfit is a perfect example!

Some fall afternoons include sitting outside at soccer games. I’m also typically running errands before I pick the girls up from school, so these next few looks would be great for either task. I’m looking for a plaid shirt so I can re-create the outfit below. I’m funny about plaid though – it will have to be just the right color combination and a more fitted shirt as opposed to oversized.

ModestPop is an online store I just discovered that features some nice styles. I haven’t ordered from them yet, but I really like the outfits they put together – this next one is an example. I already have a basic chambray shirt and a print skirt I could use.

So what are your favorite fall pieces? I didn’t post pictures of any jackets, but I think I’d like to find a light one that I can throw on over some of my short-sleeved shirts as the evenings start to cool off a bit.

As I mentioned on Saturday, blogging took a back seat to life this summer! I enjoyed having our daughters here at home, but our schedules meant less time sitting at the computer and more time doing life.

Now that they’re back in school, I’m trying to figure out exactly where I want to go with Girls to Grow. If you see me playing around with a posting schedule, just know that I’m looking for the right place to fit writing into this season.

For now, I’m going to cut back from the Monday/Wednesday/Friday writing that I tried to maintain over the past several years, and post here on Mondays and Thursdays (so consider today a bonus 🙂 – and keeping Saturday Salutes, of course! I’m hoping one less day of posting will help me focus on better quality over quantity. I’d like to start sending out a short weekly newsletter to my e-mail subscribers as well, but we’ll see how that goes.

I appreciate all of you who read here and if you ever have any feedback, I’d love to hear it!

You may recall that I took this month off from serious goals and decided to only set fun goals for July. I’m so glad I did! Here’s how it went.

1. Read one fiction book a week. I’ll be sharing the list of books I read next week.

2. Make this No-Bake Summer Berry Icebox Cake for our July 4th dessert.This was the perfect cool, refreshing dessert for our hot summer. I’ll definitely make it again!3. Find a great movie (or two) to watch on my Kindle during our flights later this month (any recommendations welcome!)For our flight to Quebec City, I downloaded the 1996 Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. It was fine, but I think I was spoiled by already having watched the 2009 BBC version of Emma many times. Admittedly, the latter is more like a mini-series; it’s two hours longer than the earlier version, which allows more time to develop the characters and relationships. It’s such a favorite (and always on my Kindle), and I ended up watching a good bit of that Emma as well!

On our flight home, I watched Scents and Sensibility. It was cute and predictable – reminded me of a Hallmark movie.

4. Buy myself a new pair of sandals.Thanks again to Sues for recommending Crocs sandals! I ended up getting two pair – these and these – and both are very comfortable.5. Be consistent in daily prayer and Bible reading. I did fairly well with this, but I did miss a few mornings while we were out of town.

I feel like it’s time to get serious again with my goals since school will be starting in three weeks. Here are my five goals for this month.

1. Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day. This one is making a return appearance – there’s lots to pray about with school starting up again!

2. Family:Make sure we eat supper together as a family at least 3 nights a week. Ballgames and other school-related activities are ramping up again, but I want to make family time a priority.3. Relationships/Service: Send notes of encouragement to four friends this month.

4. Personal Development/Health: Have a meal plan ready for the week ahead every Sunday night. Another repeat performer….I really need to get on the ball with this one since the whole rhythm of our days is about to change again.5. Blog:Write one 1,000 word post. I purposely wrote 10 Prayers to Pray for Your Daughter as a longer, more in-depth post (it took hours to put together), but it’s been shared a number of times on Pinterest, and has been viewed almost 500 times in the past few weeks. I’d like to create another “evergreen” post like that this month.

I can’t believe I just typed that in my title – July!! Summer is a-flying by!

I’ll start with a wrap-up of my June goals.

Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day.

Family:Plan for and enjoy our trip to the mountains.

Relationships/Service:Write and mail one thank-you note each week. I did this twice.

Personal Development/Health: Have a meal plan ready for the week ahead every Sunday night. As well as this worked in May, I just couldn’t motivate myself to get it done this time around.

Blog:Write one 600+ word post each week. I was fortunate just to get any blog post up most days!

I’m thoroughly enjoying this summer, but I’m finding that every day looks different. I haven’t done well with fitting in all the tasks that I normally do, and I’m realizing that it’s okay. This is just a season (literally!) where I’ll expect a little less of myself, while enjoying these moments of having my girls around the house and doing things with and for them.

That being said, I decided to only allow fun goals for July! Looking ahead, I know that this month will be as full as June, so I’m going to embrace it.

3. Find a great movie (or two) to watch on my Kindle during our flights later this month (any recommendations welcome!)

4. Buy myself a new pair of sandals. (I had to throw out my favorite pair last month when they started coming apart 🙁

5. Be consistent in daily prayer and Bible reading. This is what I know I need to do to be my best self every day. This past week, I’ve found myself substituting some VBS prep – which did involve Bible reading – for my personal time in the Word, and I missed it!

I would never claim to be a fashion blogger, so it makes me laugh when I see that my Modest Fashion Spring 2016 post is my most re-pinned post of all time.

Now that summer’s here, though, I thought I’d share some cute skirt outfits that I’ve seen on Pinterest lately. (While there are plenty of great looks out there, I’ve tried to include only those that I would actually wear. Someone with a different body type could definitely find many other styles that would work.)

I might add a necklace to this outfit, but I really like the color combination!

And, finally, I picked up this outfit yesterday when I ran into the Talbots Outlet for a few minutes. The navy skirt is a knit material and SO comfortable! I’m also into stripes these days, and the orange is a bit of a different color for me.

Welcome to June! I’m so excited to usher in a new month that brings the end of the school year, our annual family trip to the Smoky Mountains, and a more relaxed summer schedule!

May was less busy than I thought it might be, though I still didn’t do but so well with meeting my goals.

Here’s the monthly wrap up.

Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day.Meeting this goal is a blessing, as I always see specific answers to prayer – even though one of those was a clear “no” last month.

Family:Write a note to each of my immediate family members at least twice this month. Well, I did it once for each person in May.

Relationships/Service:Find one way to serve someone in my church or community each week.This is always a good reminder that we ourselves typically get a bigger blessing than the recipient of our service does!

Personal Development/Health: Have a meal plan ready for the week ahead every Sunday night.This was such a good practice to get back to, and it definitely made grocery shopping and each day’s meal prep easier!Blog:Post to Instagram 4 days a week. Didn’t happen.

Here are the goals I hope to accomplish in June.

Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day. I plan to do this again in June.

Family:Plan for and enjoy our trip to the mountains. Okay, I need at least one really easy goal this month! 😉

Relationships/Service:Write and mail one thank-you note each week.

Personal Development/Health: Have a meal plan ready for the week ahead every Sunday night. I’m sticking with this goal for another month. It served me well in May!

Blog:Write one 600+ word post each week. I’ve been wanting to develop some longer post ideas, so hopefully setting this goal will encourage me to do that. (I still hope to write two shorter posts each week, along with Saturday Salutes, if our schedule permits.)

Just when I think the months can’t go by any faster, I turn around and another one is gone!

April held another birthday for me, an athletic awards ceremony at our daughters’ school, a trip downtown to see a production of Mary Poppins, my older daughter spending several days out-of-town at a fine arts competition, a four-day trip to Asheville for all of us, a couple of activities with friends, and ended Friday night with the girls’ piano recital.

Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day. It was very exciting to see a couple of specific answers to prayer from these lists!

Family:Write a note to each of my immediate family members at least twice this month. I did this once for each person in April.

Relationships/Service:Text one friend each week to let them know I am thinking of and praying for them.

Personal Development/Health: Eat 3 servings of fruits and vegetables every week day.I did fairly well with this, but failed to track my meals enough to say that I fully accomplished it.

Blog:Post to Instagram 4 days a week. I didn’t make this goal, but I did post at least a couple of times each week.

Here are the goals I hope to accomplish this month.

Spiritual Growth:Write out a specific prayer list for each of my immediate family members at the beginning of the month and pray through it every day. I plan to do this again for May.

Family:Write a note to each of my immediate family members at least twice this month. Let’s give it one more try!!

Relationships/Service:Find one way to serve someone in my church or community each week. I’m not sure exactly what this will look like, but I’m praying that the Lord will show me needs I can meet.

Personal Development/Health: Have a meal plan ready for the week ahead every Sunday night. This is just one of those tasks that I hate doing, yet I know that my week runs much more smoothly if I make myself plan our meals in advance!

Blog:Post to Instagram 4 days a week. I’m going to try this goal once more as well.